War of Words: Coweta High School wins ‘Vocabulary Bowl’

By John Dobberstein, Editor

Competing against the best of the best word warriors in the U.S., Coweta High School scored a big upset recently and won its division at the Vocabulary Bowl.

The Vocabulary Bowl turns vocabulary building into a game. Students master words at their own pace using Vocabulary.com’s technology, earning points for themselves and their schools.

Teachers rally their classes by celebrating top scorers and team wins. Every word learned helps develop the reading, writing and communication skills students need for school and beyond.

More than 5 million words were mastered at the Vocabulary Bowl, which featured more than 1 million students supported by more than 65,000 teachers from 6,000 schools across 120 countries.

In the U.S., schools competed in three divisions based on enrollment size: Division I (1,000+ students), Division II (500-999 students) and Division III (up to 499 students). International schools, teachers and individual learners also faced off in their own brackets.

In Division II, DuBois Area High School from Pennsylvania was dethroned by Coweta High School, which claimed its first-ever divisional title by mastering 2,506 words. Coweta also won the high school division in Oklahoma, and the state’s winning middle/elementary school was the Owasso Eighth Grade Center.

The division winners for the Fall 2025 Season are (an asterisk indicates the school also had a top 10 teacher):

• Division I (1,000 students or more):
  • High School: Saint Thomas Aquinas High School* (Fort Lauderdale, Florida)
  • Middle and Elementary School: Fred J Page Middle School (Franklin, Tennessee)
• Division II (500-999 students):
  • High School: Coweta High School (Coweta, Oklahoma)
  • Middle and Elementary School: Woodland Middle School (Brentwood, Tennessee)
• Division III (up to 499 students):
  • High School: Buckingham Collegiate Charter Academy* (Vacaville, California)
  • Middle and Elementary School: Muscatel Middle School* (Rosemead, California)

U.S. state and territory champions are listed below, with the top high school listed first, followed by the leading middle or elementary school:

• Alabama: Faith Christian School, Douglas Middle School
• Alaska: Minto School, Anchor Lutheran School
• American Samoa: Pacific Horizons School
• Arizona: Red Mountain High School, Sierra Verde STEAM Academy
• Arkansas: Central High School, Washington Junior High School
• California: Buckingham Collegiate Charter Academy*, Muscatel Middle School*
• Colorado: Broomfield High School, Paonia Elementary School*
• Connecticut: Plainville High School, Michael Wallace Middle School
• Delaware: Thomas McKean High School, Saint John the Beloved School
• District of Columbia: Benjamin Banneker Academic High School, Inspired Teaching Demo School
• Florida: Saint Thomas Aquinas High School*, Viera Charter School*
• Georgia: Hebron Christian Academy Middle High School, BIA Charter School
• Guam: Harvest Christian Academy
• Hawaii: Kalani High School, Kaimuki Middle School
• Idaho: Capital High School, Canfield Middle School
• Illinois: Oak Lawn Community High School, Macomb Junior Senior High School
• Indiana: Manchester Junior Senior High School, East Central Middle School
• Iowa: Lenox Junior Senior High School, Hoover Middle School
• Kansas: Lincoln Junior Senior High School, Jefferson West Middle School
• Kentucky: Boyle County High School, Crittenden County Middle School
• Louisiana: John Curtis Christian High School, Cecilia Junior High School
• Maine: Sacopee Valley High School, Wells Junior High School
• Maryland: Chesapeake Math & IT PC – N High School, North Salisbury Elementary School
• Massachusetts: Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School, Tantasqua Regional Junior High School
• Michigan: Mayville High School*, Mayville Middle School
• Minnesota: Luverne High School, Minnetonka Middle School West
• Mississippi: Jackson Academy, McLain Attendance Center
• Missouri: Thomas W Kelly High School, Green Forest
• Montana: Lincoln County High School, Ben Steele Middle School
• Nebraska: Southwest Junior Senior High School, Johnson Crossing Academic Center
• Nevada: Sig Rogich Middle School
• New Hampshire: Londonderry High School, Pelham Memorial School
• New Jersey: Saint Benedict’s Preparatory School, Manalapan – Englishtown Middle School
• New Mexico: Artesia Senior High School, The Montessori Elementary Middle School
• New York: James Madison High School*, Great Neck North Middle School
• North Carolina: Bradford Preparatory School, McGee’s Crossroads Middle School
• North Dakota: Wishek Public School, Mandan Middle School
• Ohio: Walnut Hills High School, National Inventors Hall of Fame STEM Middle School*
• Oklahoma: Coweta High School, Owasso Eighth Grade Center
• Oregon: Marist High School, Nyssa Middle School
• Pennsylvania: DuBois Area High School*, Penn Alexander School
• Rhode Island: Classical High School, Immaculate Conception Regional School
• South Carolina: Catawba Ridge High School, Saint Andrew School
• South Dakota: Castlewood School, Harrisburg North Middle School
• Tennessee: Winchester Christian Academy, Woodland Middle School
• Texas: Carnegie Vanguard High School, Hogg Middle School
• Utah: Judge Memorial Catholic High School, Wasatch Junior High School
• Vermont: Enosburg Falls Middle High School, Christ the King School
• Virginia: Trinity Christian School, Douglass Park Elementary School*
• Washington: Moses Lake Christian Academy*, The Evergreen School
• West Virginia: Ravenswood High School, John Adams Middle School
• Wisconsin: Harold S Vincent High School, Oak Creek East Middle School
• Wyoming: Riverside Middle High School, Thermopolis Middle School

The Canadian Provincial Winners are:

• Alberta: École Secondaire Sainte Marguerite D’Youville
• British Columbia: West Point Grey Academy
• Ontario: YMCA Academy, Joan Of Arc Academy
• Quebec: College Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes
• Saskatchewan: Miller Comprehensive High School

The international division ranks schools based solely on total words mastered—no size brackets.

The International (non-US/Canada) Winners are:

• École Jeannine Manuel – France
• Nan Hua Primary School – Singapore
• Shanghai Soong Ching Ling School International Division – China
• One Target Education – Singapore
• Dhahran Ahliyya School – Saudi Arabia
• Lycée Condorcet Sydney- Australia
• Raffles Institution – Singapore
• The Galaxy School – Wadi – India
• The American College of Sofia – Bulgaria
• Menntaskólinn á Tröllaskaga – Iceland

The Top Rookie Schools are:

• Viera Charter School* – Florida
• Washington Junior High School – Arkansas
• Saint Sebastian Parish School* – Ohio
• All Saints Catholic School – Florida
• Wellington Landings Middle School – Florida

“Five million words mastered by nearly a million learners is an extraordinary achievement,” said Paul Mishkin, CEO of IXL Learning, Vocabulary.com’s parent company. “It speaks to the power of consistent practice, and to how engaging learning can be when students are excited to participate.”